UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

I’ve decided to stay away from the latest Diva Favre news.

And the story about my horrible computer build will have to wait.

(Yeah, I’ll manage.)

Quick-hitters:

- I think I figured out the secret as to why diet drinks and protein shakes either work spectacularly, or not at all:  they are intentionally made to taste disgusting!

(Have you ever tried Strawberry Milkshake flavored Muscle Milk?)

These drinks are so disgusting that you’ll either not want to eat anymore ( = instant weight loss!) or you’ll immediately go back to eating junk food after one day on the diet

- File this one under “Quick ways to earn tons of stupid points.”  Do you remember how your high school chemistry teacher always told you to never sniff the chemicals in a beaker/test tube/flask/whatever, and that the proper thing to do is “waft” the odors towards you?

I should probably have heeded that advice.  Yesterday, while cleaning my bathroom, I found a nearly empty bottle of Tilex.  Thinking that my sister might have added water to it (you know, add a bit of water in a nearly empty bottle of cleaner, shake it around, and you have a decent quantity of a dilute cleaner that could be useful for 1-2 more cleanings), I unscrewed the spray, and sniffed the contents of the bottle.

I have no idea what happened in the next 10 minutes.

(Fifty thousand stupid points.)

- So I finally have a serious gripe about my Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard + mouse combo.  The way my desk is set up (opposite the single torch lamp in the room), the media keys—next, previous, volume up/down, mute, play/pause, etc.—are virtually impossible to distinguish!  Am I going to have to buy a small lamp for my desk just to make sure I don’t hit next instead of play/pause???

Too bad this keyboard doesn’t have a built-in backlight.

(Whew!  That was long!)

Before I get to my customer service rants and raves, can you guess which of the companies I listed above are going to get rants, and which are going to get raves?  Decide, and then read on.

- Time to rant and rave!

1) Thank you, Time Warner.  Seriously.  Three rate hikes in three months wasn’t enough?

I got an email from Time Warner saying that my next month’s bill was ready.  That’s when I immediately noticed the amount due:  ~$80.  FOUR rate hikes, and we’re only in July???

It turns out that Time Warner is now charging a “Digital Programming Fee,” bundled into the cost of the monthly HD Set Top Box (STB) rental (now $9.00).  They also, I believe, raised the rental fee of a regular STB to $6.00.

I’m probably going to have to cancel HBO.  I wonder what fees they’re going to try to charge me this time.  I know the downgrade fee is a given.  Will I get hit with a “Live Operator” fee?  How about a “Dial Tone” fee?  Who knows?

(If you put Time Warner in the “rave” category, you must be smoking something.  Can I get a hit of that stuff? :P)

2) So I ordered some free after rebate (naturally) software from J&R a couple of days ago, and two days later, I got a shipping confirmation.  Unfortunately, J&R could not provide me any tracking info, or so their shipping confirmation stated.

The USPS Delivery Confirmation number on the address label of my padded mailer says otherwise.

(Huge drop-off from the first story, huh?)

3) I ordered a Belkin surge protector from Newegg.com a couple days ago.  It was advertised for $9.99 - a $5 coupon - a $5 mail in rebate and free shipping.  When I placed the order, I noticed that I was charged $8.25 for shipping and handling.

I immediately fired off an email to Newegg customer service, requesting a refund of my shipping and handling charges.  That was three days ago.

I eventually found out that the free shipping was a misprint, a Newegg Live Chat CSR explained.  The rep offered me a refund on my shipping charges anyway, and soon after, I got an emailed “invoice” from Newegg granting my credit.

(We’ll score that a half rant, half rave.)

4) OK…this one is neither a rant nor a rave; it’s just a funny story.  I got a letter in the mail about a 0% balance transfer option with Discover, and for kicks (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it), I called in to inquire about it.  I had intended on doing a transfer in the $2,000-$2,500 range, and explained this to the CSR.

The CSR, who sounded overly cheery for a phone CSR, answered all my questions quickly and adequately.  Right when I was about to hang up, though, she offered me a reduced cap on the balance transfer fee, which was 3% capped at $99; she offered a reduced cap of $75.

It took me half a second to point out that a 3% balance transfer fee on a $2,500 balance was going to cost me $75 anyway.

All the rep could do was chuckle and say “Whoops!”

(OK OK, we’ll score this one a rave anyway.  So if you guessed rant, rant, 50/50, and rave, congrats!  You win 50 Ung-bucks!)

Whew!

Tags: advertising error, balance transfer, belkin, cordless desktop mx3200 laser, delivery confirmation, diet drink, digital programming fee, discover, disgusting, FAR, free ship, hbo, high definition, j&r, keyboard, logitech, media keys, muscle milk, protein shake, rate cap, rate increase, set top box, shipping confirmation, sniffing chemicals, stupid points, surge protector, time warner // 2 Comments »

No quick-hitters tonight:

- Quick thoughts on the Clippers-Nuggets deal that sent Marcus Camby to the Clippers for the rights to swap second-round picks:

1) Clearly this was nothing more than a salary dump for Camby, but certainly they could get more than the right to swap picks, right?  They couldn’t get the Clippers’ second-round pick outright for the former All-Star?

2) As for the Clippers, I like the deal, even though Camby’s not close to Elton Brand’s talent level.  Camby’s contract is reasonable—two years, ~$16 million left—and the Clippers still have a bit of cap space to add another piece.  The problem with this deal is that it effectively wastes two years of Baron Davis’ career.  Still, I might rather have Camby for two years and cap space for the key free agent year of 2009-2010 than five years of Emeka Okafor at some obscene amount.

- So I went weeks without commenting on Packers’ diva Brett Favre, and now I’m going to comment about him on consecutive blog entries?  Wow.

Apparently there is a second part of the interview between Favre and Greta Van Susteren (who just happens to be a family friend of Favre’s AND a Packers’ shareholder!  Talk about a conflict of interest!).  And boy, is the second part a doozy.

Apparently Favre does feel “bad” for current Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers.  How nice of you, Brett!  Three years of pissing all over the guy while you waffled over whether or not to return, and you finally admit that you feel bad for the guy?

(And why do people insist that Favre is such a great guy?)

The entire quote is a great read:

The one thing in this, I do feel bad for Aaron a little bit. I think he’ll do a fine job, to be totally honest with you. I do. He has been injured. The two injuries are not his fault. Couldn’t control them. I know this has been tough on him. I think he’ll do a fine job. And this has nothing to do with him, this whole deal. If they want to make me a backup … The thing is, they’ve been preaching about, ‘We want to protect Brett’s legacy’ … and we both know what that’s about. How does that protect my legacy if I’m a backup? Brett, we welcome you back, we’ll play you $12 million but you’ve got to hold the clipboard and ball cap. That’s probably better for them as opposed to letting me go somewhere and me coming back. Then, their legacy, the management, could be in jeopardy. Let me worry about that. You don’t worry about my legacy. It’s a bunch of bull. That’s all it is.

Did the Packers’ brass really state that they wanted to protect Brett’s legacy?  If that’s so, then I’ll have to agree with Favre, in this sense:  right now, the Packers owe Favre NOTHING.  They don’t have to protect him in any way, shape, or form, not after his recent waffling.

And what’s all this garbage about Favre wanting to return to the Packers to “call their bluff?”  As rough as it would be on Rodgers to have to look over his shoulder to see Favre on the sidelines during every one of his pass attempts, the thought of seeing Favre holding a clipboard on the sidelines slightly amuses me.  And I’m sure GM Ted Thompson wouldn’t mind seeing that as well.

It’s 50/50 that I’ll have ANOTHER blog entry about Diva Favre tomorrow.

- So I tuned in to the MLB All-Star Game today, and after three innings of scoreless ball, I shut the TV off.  Later in the day, I turned the TV back on to see the National League score a go-ahead run against Jonathon Papelbon.

(Tangent:  Despite all the stupid comments Papelbon made about wanting to close, then deferring to Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera, then flipping flopping a la Diva Favre, no way did Papelbon deserve the treatment he got from the Yankee fans during the eighth inning.  And never mind the treatment that Yankee fans gave his wife during an All-Star Game parade).

I flipped the TV back off—the game just didn’t appeal to me, for some reason—and we went to Coldstone (note to self:  get the Apple Pie a la Mode sans caramel next time).  When we got back, it was 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning, and little did I know what we were in for.

Dan “Ugh”-la’s late-game attempt to cement the All-Star Game Least Valuable Player of the Millenium—a huge double play, two nearly crushing errors, two strikeouts, followed by a third “error”—fortunately was thwarted by outstanding pitching by Aaron Cook and Carlos Marmol as well as ridiculous (!!!!!!) defensive gems by (where do I start?) Miguel Tejada, Christian Guzman, Nate McLouth, and Russell Martin.  I don’t know what play was better:  Tejada’s off-balance throw in the 10th to get Aaron Cook out of a bases-loaded jam, or Nate McLouth’s strike to Russell Martin to nail Dioner Navarro in the 11th.  And the game nearly was extended on a bang-bang play at the plate involving Corey Hart and Brian McCann.  Now THAT would been awesome.

What a way to say farewell to Yankee Stadium, eh?  Yankee fans might want a World Series championship to top it all off, but I’m content with this All-Star Game

Tags: "calling their bluff", "night heat", aaron rodgers, brett favre, denver nuggets, diva favre, green bay packers, greta van susteren, los angeles clippers, marcus camby, on the record // Add Comment »

Argh…my legs are sore as hell!

It took me ten minutes to get from my bed to my bathroom…a total distance of about eight paces

Quick-hitters:

- Has anybody heard that a new movie, called Mamma Mia!, is being released soon? I just saw a commercial of it for the first time today.

(Believe that, and you’ll also believe that I own oceanfront property in Utah.

Oh look…the commercial aired again!

Mamma Mia

There it airs again

My my

How I want to end myself

Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and The Bill Engvall Show think that movie is being seriously overhyped.

- SUPER quick thought on the Elton Brand-LA Clippers situation: the fact that Brand signed with Philly for only four million dollars more per year tells me that either Brand is a backstabbing liar, or the Clippers clearly blew it by throwing Brand an eleventh-hour, lowball deal.

In any case, I wonder if Baron Davis regrets signing his deal with the Clips.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,410, and that number will go up once the backorder on a couple things I bought from Frys.com gets lifted.

- If you’re even a slight baseball fan, and you missed out on the Home Run Derby, you missed a great show by Josh Hamilton. What a shame he couldn’t hold on to win, though. The record books will say that Justin Morneau won the Derby, but who could forget the show Hamilton put on? Twenty eight home runs in the first round? That’s just stupid.

If I recall correctly, he had THIRTEEN straight bombs after hitting fifteen in his first eight outs. As great as his first-round performance was, watching the crowd cheer Hamilton on was surreal. Once you factor in the fact that this guy was out of baseball three years ago (due to drugs), the scene becomes even more memorable. Add to it the fact that this is the farewell season of Yankee Stadium, and…you get where I’m going. It almost appeared as if the crowd was completely winded after Hamilton’s run; one could say that Hamilton’s performance was truly breathtaking.

Major League Baseball could change the rules of the Home Run Derby to include all rounds in the final scoring, but it won’t change the fact that we saw one of the finest single-round Derby performances ever. Then again, Bobby Abreu hit 24 in the first round only three years ago; maybe someone will come around and hit 30.

- Brett Favre, you did it. You finally got me to say something about the recent drama surrounding your changing-of-the-mind. Let me start by saying (clears throat…)

YOU HAD TO GO ON FAUX FREAKING NEWS TO AIR OUT YOUR FRUSTRATION AT THE PACKERS???

Were all ESPN interviewers busy? Were Len Pasquerelli and John Clayton on vacation? Couldn’t you have sent another text message to Chris Mortensen? Seriously, Fox News?

That being said, are you freaking kidding me? If you had even a shred of doubt about your retirement, why did you seem so emotionally torn during that infamous press conference? If you really weren’t sure about retirement, couldn’t you have worked something out with the Packers’ organization?

This is easily my favorite part of the interview:

Favre told [On The Record host Greta] Van Susteren that “I worked my butt off two years ago to try to get them to sign Randy Moss.”

Favre added that he offered to give up salary to sign the receiver who ultimately landed with the New England Patriots.  Favre said that Thompson publicly denied that the quarterback had lobbied for Moss.

Favre also said that he tried to convince Thompson to re-sign linemen Marco Rivera and Mike Wahle, but the two key contributors signed elsewhere.

In a final instance that riled the quarterback, Favre said that he told Thompson that he should interview Steve Mariucci, an old friend, for the head coaching job after Mike Sherman left. Mike McCarthy was hired instead. “And none of those had anything to do with me retiring once again but, you know, it’s hard for me to trust, you know, this guy when I — either I’m told one thing and everyone else is told another, or he’s telling the public one thing and telling me another,” Favre said, according to the newspaper.

Uh-huh.  You brought up all these points, and then mention that none of these factors drove you to wanting out of the Packers’ organization?  Right…and a girl telling her boyfriend “I’m not mad!” really isn’t mad.

And what really gets me is the number of Packers’ faithful that want the guy back!  This guy put your team in limbo with regards to his playing status for three straight years!  Why the hell would you want him back?  Sure, he led the team to a 13-3 record last year, but attributing his play with the team’s record would ignore the Packers’ much-improved defense, their rounding-in-to-form receiving corps, and the play of Ryan Grant.  Sure, he’s the face of the franchise, but you drafted Aaron Rodgers for a reason, did you not?  If Favre returns, and Aaron Rodgers walks at the end of the season, what if Favre were to really retire then?  How horrible of a situation would Green Bay be in THEN?

If I’m Ted Thompson, I would not release the guy until the very last minute, and then I would hope he signs with Minnesota or Chicago.  Both teams have awful offenses, and I can’t wait for the day for Favre to chew out his new team, citing management for not surrounding him with enough talent to win, and then backstab the team by acting out Act Four of the “Brett Favre Saga.”  Sure, Green Bay will have to see him twice, but so what?

Since telling Brett Favre to go away isn’t going to do a damn thing now, I’ll just tell him to please sign with Chicago so he can throw 60 times a game, average three picks, and lead the Bears to a 4-12 record.

(Please?)

The whole story enrages me, and perhaps I will clean up this blog entry at a later date (I looked over it once, and it looked kinda messy.)

Until next time!

Tags: baron davis, brett favre, brett favre saga, elton brand, fox news, green bay packers, greta van susteren, home run derby, josh hamilton, justin morneau, los angeles clippers, mamma mia, on the record, overhyped // Add Comment »

My sister’s computer build has gone from a horrible time to a full-fledged disaster (and it’s still going on).  Brett Favre is really ticking me off.  The pet peeve I referenced last time still beckons to be talked about.  The Elton Brand-Los Angeles Clippers saga is getting interesting.

All that being said, I am a lazy bastard after all, so I will blog about one single topic:  this weekend’s July B-Days BBQ.

Quick-hitters:

- Oh dear.  It appears that that stupid KFC commercial where the blonde ditz declaring that “anything is possible” in this “whole new wing world” is airing again.

So apparently the brass at KFC not only thought the commercial was good enough to air it once…but they thought it was good enough to air it AGAIN???

Yikes.

- Speaking of stupid commercials, have you seen the T-Mobile one where Brett Favre makes a cameo?

Absolutely disgusting.  Seriously.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,199.  I can’t wait for the 2009 software to come out!

- (The following story is about *a* computer build, but not *the* build referenced at the beginning of this blog entry.)

So six months ago, I got a CPU/mobo combo (some junky ECS board + a Pentium Dual Core 915 @ 2.8GHz) from Krunk in exchange for a super-duper pricey, 23K gold-painted 6′ HDMI cable (no, not really).  Three months later, with the parts still sitting in their original boxes, I acquired a 500GB SATA hard drive (for reasons which are not important *whistles*).

This past weekend, I finally got around to hooking up the parts, though I did have to buy a new motherboard; Krunk warned me that the mobo’s onboard LAN port was busted, and I feared that that was going to be the beginning of a disastrous build.

I bought a cheapy ECS board (GF7050VT-M) on eBay for ~ $35 shipped, thinking that I was going to get 25% back via M$’ Live Search cashback (and for the record, I have not yet been able to claim my cash back, but that’s a story for another day).  The seller shipped my purchase almost immediately, and because he was located in SoCal, I got my package in two days.

(insert rant)

The motherboard was shipped, IN ITS ORIGINAL BOX, with nothing more than a USPS Priority Mail Tyvek envelope wrapped around it!!!  Who the hell thinks that the original box that a mobo is shipped in is sufficient packaging for something as delicate as a motherboard???

(end rant)

Fortunately, the board is working fine, and my system build went without a hitch.  I know have 300GB of free space to use for, um, data backup.

If only my sister’s computer build went that well…

- On Saturday, my aunt decided that she wanted to BBQ to celebrate the birthday of her sister (my other aunt on my mom’s side) and another individual who shall remain nameless.

We decided to go to Almansor Park for the festivities, and even though it was really warm that afternoon, it got chilly quickly, so much so that it became a chore to keep the charcoal hot enough to thoroughly cook all the food.  We had to go through two bags of charcoal and tons of lighter fluid, but eventually everything got cooked.

Food, you say?  Kebabs (New York steak, mushrooms, and bell peppers), chicken wings, ribs, potato salad, salad, celery and carrot sticks, some other stuff that I don’t remember, and of course, a birthday cake.

(In fact, when the birthday cake was ready to go and Happy Birthday was sung, I found out that a third person had a mid-July birthday:  “cousin” Darren :P.  Three birthdays, one BBQ…talk about saving money!)

EDIT:  I forgot to mention…during the day, I was forced into several hours of touch football and my best James Loney impersonation as a first baseman.  Boy am I sore today!

Until next time!

Tags: 500gb, annoying, bad shipping, bbq, birthday, combo, commercial, cpu, Food, kfc, motherboard, sata, seagate, steak // Add Comment »

I have so much to blog about!

(I hate the fact that I’m a lazy bastard :P)

I could blog about the horrible time I’m currently having with my latest computer build (and the worst part is, this build’s for my sister!).  I could go into a mega-rant about one of my biggest pet peeves in the world.  I could blog about my Dodgers being in first place in the National League Pee-Wee division (aka the West).

Basically, I could go in many directions with tonight’s blog entry.  Instead, I think I’ll continue with my Fourth of July weekend adventures.

And sorry, no quick-hitters:

- So on Saturday, we decided that we were going to go to the beach.

(Can you believe it?  Early July, and I haven’t yet stepped foot on a beach???)

As we were determining what beach we wanted to go to, I got an IM from cousin David.  You see, I had been helping him pick out a digital camera for weeks now, and he was trying to decide between one of the following (warning:  shameless link-spamming ahead):

• A Nikon D40 DSLR (my personal choice!)
• A Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5k
• A Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18k
• A Canon S5 IS (his eventual choice)

Apparently he wanted to go to Camarillo outlet to go clothes shopping, and he bribed us to go with the promise that we could play around with his new camera.  Moi, passing up the chance to play with a new toy?  Are you kidding me?  Not to mention, Camarillo was about 10-15 degrees cooler than it was here!

We didn’t get to the outlet until about 3PM, and because we hadn’t eaten yet, we stopped by the Food Court and grabbed some grilled steak sandwiches.  Pretty greasy, I might say, but what did I expect?  Very non-filling too, I might add, as I grabbed a Wetzel Pretzel about two hours later.  The pretzel was awful!  I ordered a Jalapeno Cheese pretzel, and for some reason, the Jalapenos were sweeter rather than hot.  And don’t even get me started on the substance on the pretzel that resembled cheese.

- Later on in the day, my sister wanted to go to the Coach Factory Store, and apparently they were having a huge sale…which I figured out when we were about ten stores away from Coach.  We went to the NIke store first while my sister went to Coach, and after a few minutes, we attempted to locate her in the Coach store.

That was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Eventually, she finished shopping, and got in the quite empty line.  Seemingly out of nowhere, a cute little saleswoman came up to my sister, grabbed her purchases (she accidentally grabbed my sister’s wallet, which was pretty funny), and scurried over to the register.

I believe this is a good summarization of what the cashier said to us:

“Hi!Isthatallyouwanttoday?CanIinterestyouinawalletforthirtyorfortydollars?Yourtotalcomesoutto[some-odd dollars]oh!Isthatagiftcard?Cool!I’msohappytoday!”

Seriously.  Someone might want to check the coffeemaker in the Coach Factory Store break room.

David had an excellent response to the girl:  he asked her if she wanted my sister’s phone number.

I nearly cried from laughter the second we stepped out of the store.  To this day, I’m still trying to figure out how the girl could have been so hyper.  It was nearing 7PM, and the only reasonable explanation I could come up with was that the girl works a four-hour shift, which started at 6PM.  David, being inappropriate as usual, mentioned that perhaps she was hiding something…

- After a bit of deliberation, we decided to have dinner at My Brother’s BBQ, on Ventura Blvd. between DeSoto and Canoga Blvd.  I had the Tri-Tip, sliced ham, and sliced pork dinner, and boy was the Tri-Tip excellent!  The ham was average, and the slice of pork I had was a bit too fatty.  The cole slaw and baked potato were about as good as you could expect it to be (namely, just OK), but the garlic bread was incredible!  Super garlic-y, and super buttery.  Yum!

My sister and cousin David split two dishes:  broasted and BBQ chicken, and chicken and ribs.  I tasted a bit of the ribs, which were really really dry.  The BBQ chicken was ok, and I forgot to ask how the broasted chicken was.

After dinner, we headed to Gelson’s to get some bakery grub.  We decided on a chocolate truffle (quite good), a canolli (very good!), and a Napoleon (awesome, especially because it wasn’t nearly as sweet as some places make it).  The day ended with us chowing down on dessert, followed by cousin David going crazy on SingStar 90s.  Too bad he deleted the video we made of him singing New Kids on the Block’s “Step By Step;” it was quite awesome.

(And by quite awesome…you know…)

Until next time!

Tags: broasted chicken, canon, coach factory store, garlic bread, gift card, hyper cashier, lumix dmc-fz18k, lumix dmc-tz5k, my brother's bbq, nikon d40, panasonic, ribs, S5 IS, singstar 90s, tri-tip // Add Comment »

Sorry for not blogging in so long!

Quick-hitters:

- What is it about potato salad that makes it so ridiculously addictive?

(For the record, my potato salad is simple: diced potatoes, sliced olives, chopped hard boiled eggs, finely chopped celery, mayo, vinegar, and pepper to taste.)

If preparing the salad wasn’t such a PITA, I wouldn’t have a problem eating this stuff often.

- Somebody please remind me never again to wait until near the end of the (typical) 30-day postmark deadline to file my rebates!

I was filing four rebates on purchases that, so I thought, were made on 6/11, meaning the claims must be filed by 7/11. Eventually, I realized that 6/11 was the shipping date, not the order date. The actual order date was 6/9!

Whew.

- Speaking of rebates, my current rebate-o-meter reads $1550, and that’s not counting the several orders I made recently.

My toothpaste-o-meter dropped by one, because cousin David was only willing to take one box off of my hands.

- So I missed most of the Nadal v. Federer classic (and I don’t get ESPN Classic, so I couldn’t watch the replay), but if the last few games were any indication of how great the matchup was, I will have to petition NBC to sell the match on iTunes. His streak of five straight Wimbledon titles was gone in a flash, and after dismal showings (dismal by Federer’s standards, that is) in the Aussie and French Opens, Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam titles record of 14 (Federer’s two back) is starting to look somewhat out of reach.

(By the way, I thought it was really compelling to see Federer’s reaction to his loss, when he was interviewed by John McEnroe. His delcaration that the loss “[hurt],” followed by his near breakdown, was almost humanizing, because we’ve never seen Federer in this position: losing a Grand Slam final not on clay.)

More importantly, have we witnessed a changing of the guard? Nadal suddenly has five Grand Slams, and he has proven that he can win on a surface other than clay. Would it be out of the question for him, currently 22, to have ten Grand Slams by 25? Nadal is a ridiculous athlete; did you see how many shots he made that he had no business getting to? There’s no reason why his game can’t translate on to the hard courts? He might be the man to win the season Grand Slam, if anybody.

I can’t wait for the US Open.

- Friday the Fourth was spent at two locales: an annual Fourth of July BBQ (thanks Aaron!), followed by the fireworks show at the Valley Cultural Center in Woodland Hills.

As we headed out to the BBQ, the weather was awful: it was warm and sticky. Fortunately, the sun was shining brightly when we got there, and thank goodness it was a dry heat. It was hot enough, though, for me to go through three sodas, and (by my count) seven bottles of water.

We brought that addictive potato salad, and for lunch, I had a Hebrew National hot dog, a hamburger, half of a giant Hot Link, an Omaha steak hot dog, guac and salsa with tortilla chips, various fruit, and some awesome spinach dip.

Naturally, I regretted eating all that. That didn’t stop me from chasing all that with a hamburger at 2:30, when Aaron fired up the grill a second time.

My sister and I spent most of the day taking up two seats at a table, and people constantly shuffled in and out of the other two seats. Without going in to too much detail about the individuals sitting in other seats, let me just say that older people are awesome to hang around with :P.

We were about to leave at six, when Aaron fired up the grill for a seventh (?) time. I managed to choke down another two burgers, an Omaha Steak hot dog, and about two servings of insanely awesome baked beans.

I had to be carted out of the party.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 3.5 hot dogs/sausages, four hamburgers, five or six sides, three sodas, seven bottles of water, and a stomach ache when all was said and done.

(And if you think what I ate was ridiculous, apparently all I downed was par for the course!)

After food, we swung by the Valley Cultural Center to watch the fireworks show. Barnes Park’s fireworks show, that was not. The fireworks show ran along with music played by the Los Angeles Pierce Symphonic Winds, which was pretty awesome. It would have been cooler if we heard much of the music, though; we were too far back to hear more than the booms from the fireworks.

All in all, a good start to the weekend.

Part 2 next time, and maybe a serious rant on my part.

Tags: barbeque, bbq, deadline, fireworks, Food, fourth of july, grand slam, los angeles pierce symphonic winds, postmark, potato salad, rafael nadal, rebate, roger federer, valley cultural center, wimbledon // Add Comment »

Happy Fourth of July!  Hopefully, I’ll actually get to see some fireworks this year (and no, not of the figurative type!)

- Temperature-wise, it hasn’t been as hot lately as it was a few weeks back, when we were regularly getting temps in the mid-100s during the day, and mid-80s at night.  For some reason, though, I’ve been having a hell of a time getting any sleep!

It almost feels like my room is a good ten degrees warmer this week than it has been in weeks past.  Case in point:  I’ve had no choice but to leave my Honeywell tower fan on all night.  Even with the fan on all night, I usually wake up with my pillow covered in sweat.

(Apologies to anyone that got grossed out by that image.)

I can’t wait for October.

(As far as the title is concerned…hot heat?  As opposed to cold heat, right?  See what the heat does to me? :P)

- The more my wallet tightens up, the more frequently I find incredible TV deals, no thanks to SlickDeals.

Case in point:  a 46″ Samsung 1080P LCD HDTV for $1299?  An Element 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $699?  An Envision/AOC 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $849?  Not to mention, according to SlickDeals, J&R through Amazon had a 37″ Sharp for $699!

I’d love to upgrade from my 32″ Sceptre Komodo, but the little fact that I’m broke is keeping me from doing so :P.  I fear, though, that the closer we get to football season, the bigger the urge will be for me to upgrade.

I think I should put my wallet in a giant block of ice.

- I end today’s blog entry with quite possibly the most selfless act in sports history.  Wizards G Gilbert Arenas, figuring out that $127 million was a tad too much money for his services, happily took a pay cut…of $16 million, meaning he’ll get a paltry $111 million over six years.

Something tells me that Arenas was happy for the dollar figure because it’s palindromic, or something like that.  In that case, why didn’t he ask for $111,111,111.11?

I love this quote:

“What can I do for my family with $127 million that I can’t do with $111 million?” he told The Washington Post.

How noble.  Maybe those ridiculously highly-paid CEOs can take a cue from this guy.

Talking about why he offered a hometown discount, Arenas said:

“I’m basically giving back $16 million,” Arenas told the Washington Times. “This is in line with what I’ve been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don’t wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can’t do anything about it.”

While it’s true that Arenas is giving the team a $16 million “discount,” he’s not exactly freeing the Wizards from the binds of the salary cap.  Here is the Wizards’ current cap situation; factor in Antawn Jamison’s $12.5 million per year contract (assuming he gets $12.5 million next year), and the Wizards are already at ~ $54 million in contracts.

Now, the 2008-09 salary cap figure hasn’t been released yet, but let’s assume it is ~ $57 million (it was ~ $55 million last year).  If Arenas’ new deal starts at $12 million per year, the combined contracts of Jamison and Arenas already put the Wiz way over the salary cap.  So how does this hometown discount help the Wiz in signing another free agent?

About the only thing I could think of is the fact that the discount might lower the Wizards’ luxury tax payments, if they happen to go over the tax threshold (if they use their mid-level exception this year, it appears that they will surely go over the tax threshold).  So in a nutshell, Arenas is, in the most basic sense, saving the team a bit of money.  His contract, though, certainly appears to keep them from improving the team much.

(Now, I don’t pretend to be a cap-ologist, and everything I said above could be completely wrong.  If I am so, I would appreciate any corrections!)

Tags: 1080p, 720p, aoc, element, envision, fireworks, fourth of july, gilbert arenas, hdtv, heat, hometown discount, lcd, new tv, night, samsung, sceptre komodo, sharp, washington wizards // Add Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- So I’ve been battling some terrible allergies lately. burning red eyes, sniffles, and sneezing and wheezing have cost me several hours of sleep per night.

I’ve been popping Claritin like breath mints and dropping eye drops in my eyes like mad.

- Quick thought about the rumors that Gilbert Arenas is close to a six year, $120+ million deal with the Washington Wizards: my first thought was that this was WAY too much money for a shoot-first, recently oft-injured guard. Personally, I don’t think the Arenas/Butler/Jamison core will ever win a title.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that the contract wasn’t terribly unreasonable, despite the $20 million average annual salary. Arenas is by and large the most recognizable player on the Wizards, and clearly he sells tickets. More importantly, though, if the Wiz let Arenas walk, who are they going to replace him with? Baron Davis?

(More on Davis later.)

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,350, not counting a few hundred in rebates that I have yet to file

- So I logged on to my Sprint.com account yesterday, to check to see if they finally applied the 10% monthly discount to my account that I’ve been owed since January.

Sprint, in their never ending pursuit to amaze the holy hell out of me, once again did not automatically offer me the discount.  I called Customer Service again, got a nice (English speaking!) rep, who put me on hold for about five minutes after I explained what had happened.  When the rep came back on the line, she manually credited my account $3 and “promised” that the credit would show up automatically.

I think I’ve heard that one before.  I will now accept futures bets on the following proposition:

Will Sprint automatically apply the 10% discount to my account on next month’s statement?

Yes +180

No -200

- So as my loyal readers (all none of them) know, Ross has been a source of pain and suffering to my wallet.

I now have another victim of my addiction to Ross:  the other inhabitants of my closet and dresser.  Every time I do my laundry, I shoot for my new clothes first, and what happens is that I become almost reluctant to wear any of my old clothes.  Sometimes I almost feel like doing laundry again after I go through all the new clothing.

There’s clearly one solution to this entire mess:  buy more clothes from Ross

- Finally, in a pretty significant shocker, former Warriors G Baron Davis has verbally agreed to a five year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers worth $65 million, according to sources.  Most people thought that Davis was crazy to opt-out of the final year of his deal with the Warriors, which would have paid him $17.8 million.

(Personally, I thought he was crazy too, but I figured he thought he was going to get a long-term deal from Golden State.  Never did I think that he would land in LA, if the rumors are true.)

So what does this mean for the other inhabitants of Staples Center?  For one thing, if this doesn’t convince Elton Brand (who opted out of the final year of his own deal) to return, nothing will.  Secondly, this all but spells the end of Corey Maggette’s stay as a Clipper; I thought he wasn’t a great fit with the team anyway.  Most importantly, a healthy Davis (not a safe assumption by any stretch) and a healthy Brand, with Mobley/Eric Gordon at SG, Al Thornton at SF, and Chris Kaman at C, is probably good enough to contend for a bottom-four playoff spot.

(Actually, even more importantly, it shows that Clips’ owner and noted tightwad Donald Sterling really is serious about fielding a competitive team.)

Will the signing of Davis work out?  If he stays healthy, I don’t see why not.  Will the Clippers knock the Lakers off the top spot in LA in the next few years?  No chance, as long as Kobe doesn’t erupt again.

Tags: 10% discount, allergies, baron davis, claritin, gilbert arenas, los angeles clippers, new clothes, red eye, ross, sprint, visine, washington wizards // 1 Comment »

Nope. No quick-hitters tonight.

- It probably has something to do with the Fourth of July weekend coming up, or it might just have been a slightly atypical Sunday afternoon crowd, or it might have been because we went to a different Costco than the one we usually go to—Northridge—but boy was Costco packed today!

So what does a packed Costco mean? Stupid kids running around, coming nano-millimeters from hitting your cart with their faces, idiot adults constantly blocking aisles with themselves or their shopping carts (remember this?), and the huddled masses blitzing from free sample to free sample.

What was really strange, though, was the fact that our wait that the checkout line was pretty damn short. Either Costco had every register working (I wasn’t paying attention), or everyone was just taking their sweet time shopping while we quickly grabbed what we wanted.

As for the assault to my wallet, I bought some cheese danishes, trail mix, and yogurt. I’ll set the over/under on how long it’ll take me and my sister to finish all three at two weeks.

(Don’t be a fool and take the over :P)

- So I sampled the new Carl’s Jr. Prime Rib Six Dollar Burger on Saturday.

(Those commercials made the sandwich look really tasty!)

I can sum up the review of the burger in two words: IT SUCKED. You know a burger sucks when the best part of it is the (Ciabatta) bun.

(OK, that’s not fair. The meat patty was typical Six Dollar Burger good.)

The three or so pieces of Prime rib that found its way on top of my burger made dirt-cheap Vegas buffet Prime rib taste awesome by comparison. Honestly, I couldn’t tell what was Prime rib, and what was grilled onion. And don’t get me started on the horseradish sauce; it was so sweet, I thought they topped my burger with yogurt! Not to mention, the sauce had as much of a kick as shrimp cocktail sauce.

The worst thing was, the combo costs $8 here in the valley! Can I do a chargeback, on the basis that the item was significantly not as described?

- So let me get this straight. The Los Angeles Dodgers Actually in Los Angeles got five three hits on Sunday and lost, but they got zero hits on Saturday, and won? How crazy is that?

After the seventh inning, I was rooting for the Dodgers to go hitless the rest of the way, just to see history happen. Needless to say, I was elated when Dodgers’ closer Takashi Saito finally got the last out.

(I will neither confirm nor deny that the fact that the Los Angeles Angels Outside of Los Angeles were on the wrong end of history didn’t make the moment a bit sweeter).

By the way, just as I will never call the Anaheim Angels that ridiculous moniker that they choose to go by, I will not call the Angels’ performance anything other than what it should be: a no-hitter. I don’t care what the rule book says; the Angels held the Dodgers hitless for an entire game, and that should be counted as a no-hitter. I couldn’t agree more with what MSNBC’s Mike Celizic wrote:

A pitcher throws a six-inning shutout and gets the win when rain ends the game, he gets a shut-out. If a batter is working on a hitting streak and loses it in a five-inning, rain-shortened game, baseball doesn’t say that doesn’t count because he should have had two more at-bats. So, why this silly rule about no-hitters? Why is a six-inning, rain-shortened game a complete game for everyone else but not for the guy who throws a no-hitter?

And for the record, Scioscia made the right call in pulling Weaver in the top of the seventh. He had to find a way to manufacture a run! Also, I completely disagree with the official scorer on the booted ball by Weaver that led to the Dodgers’ only run. That has to be ruled a base hit; it was much too bang-bang for it to be called an error.

Until next time!

Tags: anaheim angels, carl's jr, cheese danish, costco, evil, los angeles dodgers, no hitter, prime rib, six dollar burger, trail mix // Add Comment »

My head hurts.

And I hate stupid people.

Quick-hitters:

- Office fans, rejoice! According to Office creator Ricky Gervais, Carell has signed a three-year contract extension to continue making episodes of The Office.

W00h00!!!

- (Thanks, or maybe no thanks, Krunk) Do women REALLY like douche-y a-holes like this clown?

There are guys that think they’re the greatest, and then there’s this guy.

My head is still reeling from listening to the clip…ONCE!

(BTW, if you want to talk “douchebag,” look no further than Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.)

- I’m surprised that Chase, Citibank, and Discover haven’t called me up lately, inquiring as to why I haven’t bought anything lately.

How will these companies ever stay in business?

- Have you seen a commercial for the “Guitar Idol?”

(Warning: an obnoxious, insipid, and possibly traumatizing commercial, the same one that is shown on TV, appears on that site. You have been warned.)

Basically, these devices are oversized, rubberized (I think) guitar pick-shaped devices with a built-in speaker. Each pick is programmed to play two songs, and apparently you’re supposed to “strum” the pick up and down along with the music, adding your own guitar riffs.

This would be an awesome idea…if Guitar Hero and Rock Band never existed. Well, that, and if air guitar players didn’t look ridiculous.

The best thing about these picks? $19.95 + $8.95 processing and handling!!! I think I would be happier with the money.

- So here are some super-late, and probably already oft-repeated thoughts regarding Thursday’s NBA Draft:

1) It didn’t surprise me that Miami went with Michael Beasley. How he will fit with Wade + Marion, though, is another story. If they click, and Mario Chalmers (great pickup, BTW) relegates Jason Williams to the bench, will Riley mosey (sp?) his way down to the Heat bench next season?

2) I hate the Memphis-Minny swap for both sides. Minny picked up an undersized PF in Kevin Love (don’t they already have one in Al Jefferson?) and traded away a potential superstar in O.J. Mayo in the process. And doesn’t Memphis have enough guards already? And they had to throw in Mike Miller in the deal as well?

What’s next? Is Minny going to trade Al Jefferson back to Boston for cash considerations? Is Memphis going to trade O.J. Mayo to the Lakers for D.J. Mbenga?

3) I am not a fan of the Sonics pick of Russell Westbrook at #4. They could probably have traded down (say, to #7) and still picked up Westbrook. Now, if he learns how to play the point, and develops a reliable jumper, then this is a great pick. As it stands, I thought this was a serious reach (but nothing compared to the Kings’ pick of Jason Thompson at #12.)

If I think of something else to say, I’ll add it later. For now, though, here are my draft winners/losers:

4) Winners: Miami (especially if Chalmers works out), New Jersey (Brook Lopez at #10 was great value, but I don’t particularly like the Ryan Anderson pick), and Portland (Bayless fits the team perfectly, and they now have something like 200 future picks stockpiled). The Clippers are winners if DeAndre Jordan doesn’t flop. And can I put the Lakers in this list for acquiring Pau Gasol for the 28th overall pick, a sack of potatoes, Gasol’s brother, and Javaris Crittendon?

Losers: Sacramento (Jason Thompson? Patrick Ewing, Jr.?), Milwaukee (they love SFs, and sorry, but Joe Alexander has bust written all over him), and honorable mention to Knicks’ pick Danilo Gallinari (was that a brutal crowd or what?).

Final thought: I love the T.J. Ford for Jermaine O’Neal trade for Toronto. They got rid of a redundant player for a high-risk, high-reward player in O’Neal, and the 17th pick (Roy Hibbert) isn’t going to be a game-changer. IF (and that’s a huge IF) O’Neal plays sixty games, and is healthy for the playoffs, look out for Toronto!

As for Indiana, I like T.J. Ford, and Brandon Rush will be a solid pro. But, they had Jerryd Bayless fall to their laps at #11. Why not keep him as an insurance policy for T.J Ford, as well as a guy who can play some shooting guard?

That’s all for tonight.

Tags: commercial, douchebag, guitar idol, indiana pacers, jermaine o'neal, jerryd bayless, kevin love, los angeles clippers, mario chalmers, miami heat, michael beasley, milwaukee bucks, office, oj mayo, portland trail blazers, ricky gervais, russell westbrook, sacramento kings, steve carell, t.j. ford, toronto raptors, voicemail // 2 Comments »